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It only makes sense that the two artists credited for the creation of “Raising Sand” — former Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant and bluegrass goddess Alison Krauss — get top billing on the marquee when the tour pulls into East Tennessee on Tuesday.

T Bone Burnett doesn’t mind. His name is up there — after all, he’s the bandleader for the tour — but perhaps more importantly, it’s in the album’s liner notes, where he’s listed as the producer. Those familiar with such roles know just how important Burnett’s part in the project was — and not just on “Raising Sand,” which made many year-end best-of lists for 2007.

In fact, it’s probably safe to say that without Burnett, some of the best albums of the past 20 years might never have been recorded. He’s a producer who ranks right up there with Brendan O’Brien and Rick Rubin, a sort of Midas in the control booth whose projects often turn to critical and commercial gold.

“August and Everything After,” by the Counting Crows. “Bringing Down the Horse,” by The Wallflowers. “How Will the Wolf Survive?” by Los Lobos. “Revival” and “Hell Among the Yearlings,” both by Gillian Welch. “Love and Hope and Sex and Dreams,” by The BoDeans. Burnett was on hand to produce them all.

That’s not something he wears like a badge of honor. If anything, Burnett is hesitant to name drop, and even more reticent to give himself credit for the success of those records. He likens himself to, well, a delivery room doctor. The artist is the mother, the album is the infant, and he’s just there to help bring it into the world.

“I don’t tend to look back that much,” Burnett told The Daily Times this week. “I’ve never really thought about it, but there does seem to be a connection among all of those artists, something about them that seems real. Maybe it is like a sort of song delivery room. You just don’t get a chance to work with that much good material that often, but I’m glad I’ve been a part of that process for some of those bands.”

Burnett got his start as an artist, releasing his first album in 1972. In 1975 and ’76, he was asked to join Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tours, and after playing with the legendary folk-rocker for those two years, he formed The Alpha Band with two other members of the Revue. After three records, he struck out on his own as a solo artist, but over the next 20 years, he gained more notoriety for his work as a producer than as a recording artist.

After 1992’s “The Criminal Under My Own Hat,” however, Burnett didn’t put out another album until two years ago, when he released “The True False Identity.” Every once in a while, however, he feels that familiar itch — the call of the muse, so to speak; the siren song that pushes him to create instead of helping others to do so.

“I never set out to be a solo artist, whatever that is — I like to collaborate,” he said. “It’s a very particular thing, and there are very few true solo artists — there are a lot of people out there by themselves performing, but I would always listen to someone like Ray Charles and think, ‘I can’t do this.’ That wasn’t something that seemed like an option to me, really.

“But the most fun, the most free, part of making music, of making life, is writing songs. You get to dream something up that wasn’t there, but it is — it’s this amazing, invisible thing, and to me, that’s the most rewarding part of life, and there came a point where I wanted to experience that freedom again.”

Since “The True False Identity,” he’s been busier than ever, with projects like the “Cold Mountain” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack (another landmark recording that he produced and for which he selected music). Not only did he collaborate with Plant and Krauss for “Raising Sand,” he’s been working on a follow-up album for himself, “Tooth of Crime,” based on a play by actor/playwright Sam Shepard that dates back to 1972.

“It came about just a few months ago, really,” Burnett said of “Tooth of Crime.” “I started out recording some stuff to use in the play — some loops, some instrumentation — and then Nonesuch (Burnett’s label) came into the picture, and they liked the idea of making a record out of the music. By the time the play was up and running, though, there didn’t seem to be an album there any more, but in moments I could find, I would just sort of dig back through the music we came up with through the process of making the play.

“Finally, just six months ago, I found the last piece, a cut for the play I’d completely forgotten about, and at that point, it told a story. It felt like there was a narrative there that somehow related to the play.”

The album will be released May 13; in the meantime, Burnett is handling duties as bandleader for the “Raising Sand” tour, which will keep him busy through the spring. It’s a job that’s both burdensome and gratifying — in addition to Plant and Krauss, Burnett leads a band that includes celebrated guitarist Buddy Miller as well as playing guitar himself. Normally, Burnett said, he doesn’t learn the songs he helps produce, but this project was something different entirely.

“I try not to play as much as possible when I’m making records so I don’t have to learn the tunes and I can stay outside of it a little bit, but on this one, the collaboration with everybody was so powerful, it just took us in a different direction,” he said.

As much of a veteran as Burnett is, the musical firepower that the “Raising Sand Tour” brings to the stage is awe-inspiring, even for him. He wouldn’t necessarily describe it as impressive; more like mind-blowing.

“Yesterday, Alison was running through a tune, doing it with Stuart (Duncan, fiddler and mandolin player), and it was so powerful — all of us sitting there saw it,” he said. “I found myself thinking, if I could open my mouth and make that sound, what would it do to me? I don’t know the right adjective, the right description, for that state. And that happens all of the time on this tour.

“With Robert ... we’re doing a lot of quiet times and a lot of loud times in the show, and we’ll get to a really quiet time and Robert will go off and just be Robert! He just gets going, and the whole band explodes and it turns in ‘Jack Johnson’ (the Miles Davis record) or something. He has that kind of power, to send people over the edge with those notes.”